Stack Exchange in general has a strong bias against questions that are intended to drive debate, as opposed to questions with concrete answers. If you read the "meta" StackExchange sites, you'll see that it's a regular & recurring theme of contention.
SE's moderators are extremely powerful, but so are (some of) SE's users, and occasionally, you'll get to see a direct conflict between the two groups playing out. I had a small battle with ServerFault's mods once over a question that users thought was interesting, well-researched, and insightful, but one moderator with a *major* stake up his butt didn't like because he thought I was doing something dangerous that end users have no business doing themselves instead of deferring to "qualified service personnel". I spent a week jousting with him. I'd post an update and get a wave of positive karma, then he'd retaliate, wipe most of it away, and ding me another 25 points for refusing to let it go.
In retrospect, it was an epic battle between two self-righteous aspies... one blatantly INTP (me), and one rigidly INTJ (him). In the end, he got two other mods to join him and banish my question to limbo -- not deleted, and appearing in highly-relevant search results, but not allowed to appear in the list of "active" or "popular" questions on the main page. I was pissed, partly because the question was never really answered (my update posts were just documenting my ongoing research for the benefit of others, which was the reason why other users were rewarding me with bonus points and good karma), but ultimately I had to recognize that I was outgunned & he won that battle. Someday, if I manage to find the solution, I WILL post it in my question thread, then sit back with a bowl of popcorn and watch the artillery flying.
For what it's worth, some StackExchange sites are more rigid than others. ServerFault, in particular, is lorded over by profoundly anal-retentive INTJs who freak out at the slightest hint of subverting adminstrative authority or voiding manufacturers' warranties. The mods on that particular site are pretty much determined to live up to the stereotyped definition of "BOFH". At the other extreme is the "Electrical Engineering" site, where the INTPs are clearly in charge. They'll still smack down senseless AVR-vs-PIC battles, and there's a razor-fine line they'll tolerate in arguments about "Arduino(IDE/sketches)-vs-WinAVR", but there's a lot more tolerance for questions of a more debate-driven nature simply because that's how EEs *are*.
StackOverflow falls somewhere in between the two extremes. It frowns upon open-ended questions that can't be answered in concrete terms and given concise answers, but its mods rarely pontificate or get into ideological battles unless you're suggesting something that's outright illegal & could get SO into trouble.
Generally speaking, it's not a good idea to stir the "free-vs-proprietary" pot at StackOverflow. You can ask for free solutions because you don't want to (or can't) spend money, but insinuating that the use of free software is morally superior is just asking for trouble. Questions like "Why did Google stupidly pollute the Android package namespace with a degenerate, partial implementation of Bouncycastle" will get punished. Questions like "How can I build an Android app that uses something from the "real" Bouncycastle library that isn't supported by the partial crippled subset included with the Android API" will get 10 pages of answers and tutorials.
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Your Aspie score: 170 of 200 · Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 34 of 200 · You are very likely an Aspie [ AQ=41, EQ=11, SQ=45, SQ-R=77; FQ=38 ]
03 Aug 2012, 3:28 am
